Judge delays Bloomingburg development a day, hearing set for Friday

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 5:54 PMJan 30, 2014 at 5:56 PM

BY STEVE ISRAEL

BLOOMINGBURG — In a temporary victory for opponents of the 396 home Hasidic development in this eastern Sullivan County village, a Sullivan County Supreme Court judge on Thursday ordered a day-long halt to its construction.

Developer Shalom Lamm’s companies “are hereby restrained from any and all construction activity at the site of the Villages at Chestnut Ridge Development located on Winterton Road in the Village of Bloomingburg in the Town of Mamakating,” says the Order to Show Cause issued by Judge Stephan Schick.

The defendants include Lamm, the ruling boards of Bloomingburg and Mamakating and other town officials and developers connected with the 400 acre property and its 2006 annexation from Mamakating into Bloomingburg.

They’re ordered to appear in Sullivan County Supreme Court Friday afternoon to explain why the stop worker order should or should not be lifted.

Opponents, including Holly Roche and the Rural Community Coalition, claim that the annexation of the land for the development was done illegally, since residents of that land did not have the opportunity to vote on it.

“I’m pleased that the judge took our complaint and argument very seriously,” said Roche. “I’m looking forward to our day in court and hope justice will prevail.”

Lamm said he was sure the judge would allow the project to proceed and reject the Rural Community Coalition’s argument. He noted that a state Supreme Court judge in 2012 dismissed an RCC lawsuit challenging the approvals process for the development, saying they had waited too long to file it, and the village had followed the rules of the process.

“We’re confident the court will reject the plaintiffs’ claims, just as the court did in the prior lawsuit brought by the Rural Community Coalition,” Lamm said. “Amazingly, the plaintiffs obtained a temporary restraining order without informing the court that their prior attempts at getting an injunction had been rejected, and their prior case dismissed. We believe that once we’ve had an opportunity to be heard, the court will reject the plaintiffs’ claims.”

The lawyer who researched and requested the stop work order, Kurt Johnson of Bloomingburg, claims the annexation violated the state Constitution, which, he says, requires that the people who live in the area to be annexed must vote on the annexation.

“And the village just didn’t do that. Nor did they get residents to sign consents,” he said.

This is the second temporary setback for the developers of Chestnut Ridge, which opponents fear will overwhelm this village of 400 residents. In December, the Bloomingburg Planning Board rejected developers’ plans for a girls’ private school that would be fed by the development.

Lamm is suing the Planning Board over the rejection, essentially claiming the rejection was based on anti-Hasidic emotion, not the law.